"What I have is illegal," Catalfamo says of the current township designated access. "I'm crossing wetlands."

Catalfamo has argued since buying and building a home on the property in 1988, that an access drive onto his land from Primrose Lane — an old logging road — was designated in a 1981 map plan for the lot.

He also maintains he actually owns the small strip of land near the road that was sold by a major developer in 2001 to his neighbor.

Monroe County Commissioners Chairman John Moyer, who researched the matter at Catalfamo's request, believes Catalfamo has a good case.

The township blocked driveway access in 1989 by building a 14-foot extension of guardrail from a bridge over Pond Creek, according to a records search Catalfamo commissioned.

"This barricade denies Joseph Catalfamo of his legal right of ingress and egress he enjoyed when he purchased the property Nov. 23, 1988," states an analysis of publicly filed deeds and engineering surveys performed by the late surveyor Jim Francis.

Catalfamo has shown mountains of paperwork to township officials past and present, commissioned surveys showing his property adjoins Primrose Drive, filed complaints with the state Attorney General's Office and gone to county court three times to try to win direct access to his home.

None of this, though, stopped Big Ridge Developers — then owner of record of Country Club of the Poconos, a home development directly across Primrose Lane — from claiming it owned a 2,700-square-foot parcel between the Catalfamo property and the west side of Primrose Lane.

Big Ridge sold that strip in October 2001 to Debra Henley and then township sewer authority director Perry Henley, Catalfamo's neighbors.

Catalfamo contends he owns that strip of land in front of his house, across the road from Country Club. The township-erected guardrail in front of the property, near Pond Creek, blocks any access from Primrose.

Now Catalfamo has an ally in Moyer, who asked the county Assessment Office to dig up related property records.

"Based on the data available to me, it appears that an error was made in transferring a portion of Mr. Catalfamo's property to an adjoining land owner thereby depriving him of property rights consistent with his original deed," Moyer wrote last fall to Middle Smithfield supervisors. "This conveyance, along with the construction of a guardrail, precludes Mr. Catalfamo's use of the driveway from Township Road 540 (Primrose Lane) to access his property."

Moyer pointed to a 1981 map plan for the property, filed with the county by then owners Ross Lesoine and Judy A. Miller, showing the driveway connection to Primrose Lane. He also referenced the 1988 deed by which Catalfamo bought the property.

"This deed indicates that the Catalfamo property runs to the right of way of Township Road (540)," the commissioner wrote.

Moyer urged the township to investigate and let him know the outcome.

The county commissioner's letter came last fall after Catalfamo pressed the current township supervisors board to address the property dispute, which hinges in part on whether Primrose Lane, a township road, directly abuts his property or is separated by the strip of land sold to the Henleys.

Township attorney Michael Gaul said he would review the matter, but advised the supervisors not to discuss or comment publicly on the dispute. He noted Catalfamo filed two lawsuits against previous supervisors' boards.

A 1997 ruling by then Monroe County Judge Ronald Vican sided with the township, with the judge saying the evidence produced then showed Catalfamo's property doesn't abut Primrose Lane and that the driveway access to Primrose is within a flood plain.

Vican pointed to a map plan filed in 1977 by surveyor John Ray Rogers that the judge said shows Catalfamo's property doesn't abut Primrose. William "Dee" Rake testified in 1997 that his family owned the disputed strip of property from the 1930s until they sold it to the original Country Club of the Poconos developer in 1988.

The Rakes never filed a joinder deed cobbling together the various land tracts — hundreds of acres — they assembled and sold for the private home development. The original Country Club developer — Mid-Monroe Development Corp. — didn't file a boundary survey with the county for the private community until 2000, when Country Club was sold to Big Ridge Developers.

Catalfamo points to a 1989 site evaluation performed for him by the engineering firm of R.K.R. Hess Associates.

"The drive does not encroach on any wetland areas and is not in a floodway," R.K.R. environmental specialist Paul Warren wrote to the township. "This is the only possible access to the lot; without the requested waiver Mr. Catalfamo will be denied access to and the use of his lot."

On the contrary, all of the Fox Lane road frontage that Catalfamo must use today is in a wetland unsuitable for access, he wrote.

Francis, the surveyor also retained by Catalfamo, pointed in 2002 to "mathematically flawed" boundary coordinates in a previous survey for a curve in the 40-foot-wide Primrose Lane right-of-way, and the deed for the 2,700-square-foot strip sold by Big Ridge Developers to the Henleys. Some of the boundary lines failed to "close," Francis wrote.

Perry Henley insists he legally acquired the disputed land strip from Big Ridge Developers but declined to be interviewed for this story.

Middle Smithfield's attorney Gaul told Moyer that Catalfamo has failed to clearly state what action he seeks from the township.

"I will continue to personally review the township file on this matter," Gaul wrote to Moyer in January. "However, that could take time, especially when balanced against other pressing township matters. The township file is large. The history of the matter is complicated."

Gaul pointed to the 1997 court decision in the township's favor, adding that Catalfamo and a friend working in his behalf "have not been helpful in trying to simplify the matter."

Catalfamo, 80, is on a nonstop quest to establish driveway access from Primrose Lane before he dies and the property passes on to his two children.

"From the day I bought the property until today I haven't had a moment's peace," Catalfamo said.